June is Pride Month!
LGBTQ+ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer, the + symbol represents others, including people of all identities. June is pride month, commemorating the stonewall riots of June 1969. Pride celebrates LGBTQ+ communities, their histories and contributions to society and culture.
The pride rainbow flag was created in 1978 by an American artist and gay rights activist Gilbert Baker, as a symbol for the LGBTQ+ community. In 2018, an artist called Daniel Quasar released a redesign of the Pride flag, called the Progress Pride flag, this included black, brown, pink, pale blue and white stripes, to represent marginalised people of colour in the LGBTQ+ community, the trans community, and those living with HIV/AIDS. In 2021, Valentino Vecchietti of Intersex Equality Rights UK, shared an updated version to the Progress Pride flag, which included a yellow triangle and purple circle to represent the intersex community.
Pride month also aims to highlight the discrimination and difficulties that the LGBTQ+ community still faces. In 2017 an LGBTQ+ survey was undertaken, with more than 108,000 responses. This highlighted that within healthcare LGBTQ+ communities face discrimination, felt their specific needs were not being met, had poorer experiences, and had major concerns about accessing healthcare. Read more about this here: NHS England » LGBT health
A CIPD research report looking at LGBTQ+ experiences of work, found that LGBTQ+ employees are more likely to experience workplace conflict and harassment. 40% of LGB+ workers and 55% of trans workers have experienced such conflict, compared with 29% of heterosexual, cisgender employees. A higher proportion of LGB+ workers (16%) and trans workers (18%) feel psychologically unsafe in the workplace compared with heterosexual workers (10%). Read the full report here Inclusion at work: Perspectives on LGBT+ working lives (cipd.org)
Pride month also aims to highlight the discrimination and difficulties that the LGBTQ+ community still faces. In 2017 an LGBTQ+ survey was undertaken, with more than 108,000 responses. This highlighted that within healthcare LGBTQ+ communities face discrimination, felt their specific needs were not being met, had poorer experiences, and had major concerns about accessing healthcare. Read more about this here: NHS England » LGBT health
A CIPD research report looking at LGBTQ+ experiences of work, found that LGBTQ+ employees are more likely to experience workplace conflict and harassment. 40% of LGB+ workers and 55% of trans workers have experienced such conflict, compared with 29% of heterosexual, cisgender employees. A higher proportion of LGB+ workers (16%) and trans workers (18%) feel psychologically unsafe in the workplace compared with heterosexual workers (10%). Read the full report here Inclusion at work: Perspectives on LGBT+ working lives (cipd.org)